Disciplinary Police Officers 40 per Month... External Views Still See Lenient Punishments

Already Over 270 This Year
133 Most for Rule Violations
"Internal Investigations Are Tough" Voices Also

[Asia Economy reporters Seongpil Jo and Sehee Jang] It has been confirmed that more than 270 police officers have been disciplined this year for various misconducts. Among them, 128 received severe disciplinary actions.

According to data received by Jeong Woo-taek, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the People Power Party, from the National Police Agency on the 31st, 274 police officers were disciplined as of last month this year for violations of regulations, damage to dignity, and other offenses. This means that about 40 police officers were disciplined each month for misconduct.

By type of discipline, violations of regulations were the most common with 133 cases, followed by damage to dignity with 103, dereliction of duty with 24, and bribery and entertainment acceptance with 14. By rank, lower-ranking officers at the rank of lieutenant or below accounted for 196, making up 71.5% of the total. Next were 59 inspectors, 17 senior inspectors, and 2 high-ranking officers at the rank of chief superintendent or above.

The number of police officers disciplined for misconduct has been increasing every year. It rose from 417 in 2018 to 426 in 2020, and 493 last year. In particular, eight out of ten officers disciplined were for damage to dignity or violations of regulations. About 20 officers were disciplined annually for accepting bribes or entertainment. This is a major cause and background for criticism of lax discipline both inside and outside the police force.

Police misconduct is not simply a personal issue but causes distrust in the entire police force. Recognizing this, the police have recently tended to treat a significant number of cases with severe disciplinary actions such as suspension or higher. Looking at the status of severe disciplinary actions over the past five years, there were 304 cases in 2017, 201 in 2018, 177 in 2019, 188 in 2020, and 222 last year.

Last year alone, 153 police officers were suspended or demoted due to various misconducts. Additionally, 59 officers were dismissed or discharged. This year, 34 officers have already been dismissed or discharged.

Increase in Police Disciplinary Actions for Various Misconducts... 'Cross-Check' with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety

Although punishments are becoming stricter, there are still skeptical views from outside that the penalties are 'light.' There are calls to immediately standardize inconsistent sentencing regulations and strengthen disciplinary standards.

Assemblyman Jeong Woo-taek said, "Cases of police officers, who are responsible for the lives and safety of the public, being disciplined for various misconducts are increasing," and added, "It is necessary to comprehensively review institutional improvement measures, including cross-checking by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to ensure that light punishments are not being applied."

Inside the police force, there are complaints about difficulties from the investigation stage of misconduct before disciplinary action. Moreover, since investigations into misconduct that have been registered as criminal cases are conducted separately, it inevitably takes considerable time.

A police official said, "Because misconduct investigations involve questioning related parties, they need to be examined more thoroughly," and added, "There are many cases that typically take up to three months."

A recent representative case is a sergeant from the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul who was caught for drunk driving. On the 2nd of this month, he was charged with fleeing from the police while driving under the influence and was caught in the parking lot of the police station where he works. His blood alcohol concentration was confirmed to be 0.199%, far exceeding the license cancellation level of 0.08%. A police official said, "Disciplinary discussions will proceed separately only after the investigation into the sergeant is concluded."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.